Harrods Throws Out Big Spender Woman Says Store Objected To Her Size

For almost any store, Californian Eilene Kadden would have been a dream customer: She spent $2,000 on jewelry, dresses, perfume, ties and designer jeans.

Not for Harrods, London’s famed department store.

Even though Kadden had just had her blond hair done and was wearing $100 leggings and a $200 shirt, a security guard ordered her out of the store Monday for violating Harrods’ dress code.

The store said the guard thought Kadden was wearing tights, not leggings, and that her shirt was a too-short dress.

But Kadden, a confident size 18, told British newspapers that she was kicked out because of her size.

“It was complete discrimination against larger women,” The Times of London quoted her as saying.

“I came back to my hotel, ripped off my clothes and cried for hours. I have never been treated like this in Milan, New York, Paris and Canada,” she told the newspaper.

Kadden, 48, who owns a wholesale children’s wear company, sent a letter to the store’s legal department asking for an apology and flew home to Los Angeles on Wednesday, vowing never to return.

There was no word from Harrods on whether she will get an apology.

Harrods introduced a dress code in 1989 banning attire it deemed unsuitable - swimwear, short shorts and midriff-baring tops.

A spokesman for the store denied Kadden was asked to leave because of her size.

“The security man saw this woman walking through the store and thought her appearance infringed the dress code. She was wearing leggings, but appeared as if she was only wearing tights,” said the spokesman, speaking on condition of customary anonymity.

Kadden was pictured on the front page of The Times posing in front of Harrods in what appeared to be the offending outfit - brown leggings and a loose, long-sleeved white shirt.

She said she was on her way out of the store with $2,000 in purchases from a lunchtime shopping trip with her mother, Beverley Aronoff, when a security guard took her arm and asked her to leave because she was “inappropriately dressed.”

Her mother, who is smaller but was similarly clad in leggings and a loose shirt, was not ordered out of the store.

“I was wearing a $3,000 Cartier watch, a $600 Italian designer handbag, $100 brown leggings and a $200 white shirt embroidered with multicolored cactuses and flower motifs,” Kadden said.

“I was looking classy and funky and smarter than other shoppers in worn jeans and dirty tennis shoes,” she told The Times.

Shoppers outside Harrods on Wednesday were sympathetic.

“The clothes shop where I work is quite upmarket, and we sell some very expensive lines, but I would never dream of telling a customer how they should dress,” said boutique worker Helen Leyshon, 23.

“I approve of stopping people walking around Harrods in rags, but in this case they got it wrong,” said 32-year-old Hannah Kaye of London.

“She wasn’t exposing any flesh and her clothes were obviously very expensive,” she said. “I think they were blaming her for being fat.”